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Volume: 52 - Issue: 4

First page: 320 - Last page: 326

A. Takhar - J. Stephens - P.S. Randhawa - A.L. Poirrier - P. Andrews

BACKGROUND: There has been a great expansion in patient-based outcome measures to face the ever-increasing demand to demonstrate surgical efficacy. However, surgeons have not adopted until now any systematic outcome instrument. The 22-item Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22) is a validated sinonasal outcome score in sinonasal and septorhinoplasty surgery but does not measure aesthetic outcome. The aim of this paper is to validate a modification to the Sino-Nasal Outcomes Test-22 (SNOT-22) with a new question regarding the shape of the nose (SNOT-23).
METHODOLOGY: We conducted a prospective cohort study on 69 consecutive patients undergoing septorhinoplasty and a control group of healthy volunteers. Reproducibility, responsiveness to treatment, known group differences and validity of the SNOT-23 were analysed. Scores were compared to visual analogue scales, nasal obstruction symptoms evaluation (NOSE) score and nasal inspiratory peak flow.
RESULTS: SNOT-23 has good test-retest reliability and is a valid outcome measure for assessing response to surgery especially with regards to shape of the nose and nasal obstruction when compared to other patient reported measures.
CONCLUSION: SNOT-23 is a valid and reliable tool that can be easily used in routine clinical practice to assess the functional and aesthetic outcomes from septorhinoplasty surgery. The SNOT-23 could be adopted as a universal, easy to use tool in rhinology clinics for the assessment of response to septorhinoplasty and sinus surgery.

Rhinology 52-4: 320-326, 2014